


kisses on the necks of best friends

by pissedofsandwich



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: M/M, Obliviousness, Read Warnings Note, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 02:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3751099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pissedofsandwich/pseuds/pissedofsandwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things just happen. Like when he sings, when he sees sounds as colors, when he steps on stage and the adrenaline rushes through his veins, when he sees his band mates and knows that this is for life, if not the band then the friendship, when he sees Pete and thinks that this is more than forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kisses on the necks of best friends

**Author's Note:**

> there's a slight reference to the bestbuy accident (VERY SLIGHT, like just one line). also like two non-explicit nsfw scenes.

A lot of times, Patrick’s not sure how things can happen. Some things just _happen_. Like when he sings, when he sees sounds as colors, when he steps on stage and the adrenaline rushes through his veins, when he sees his band mates and knows that this is for life, if not the band then the friendship, when he sees Pete and thinks that _this is more than forever_.

Like when he kisses Pete.

It’s one of the things that just happen naturally. He doesn’t need to learn how to do it. It just happens. Maybe it gets better, but for the most part, it feels like Patrick’s been born to do it. It feels like this is the way it’s supposed to be, their lips touching and hands grasping.

Even if their Soulmate marks don’t match.

-

Patrick’s Soulmate mark is a pair of wings. It shows up on his back one morning, stretching from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. The wings are mangled, the amount of feathers on the right side and the left side not even. There’s exactly one feather missing, right on right shoulder blade. His Soulmate must have the mark as him.

He never finds anyone with that exact mark, though. His longest term girlfriend, Elisa, doesn’t even have his Soulmate mark. Sometimes, he wonders why Elisa stays. Sometimes, he wonders if it’s just because Elisa shares his fear—never finding his other half—and that’s why she saddles herself with Patrick, just to have a back-up plan. Elisa’s dream is to have a white picket fence life, with 2.5 kids and two dogs playing in the backyard. She knows Patrick will give her that. She knows how much Patrick loves her. But Patrick knows her biggest dream is to live her dream with her Soulmate, not him, and it seems cruel, what Elisa is doing to him. Strangely, though, Patrick understands.

So he breaks up with Elisa and tells her to find her bird (her Soulmate mark is a swallow in flight, positioned right above her knees, one of her many, many weak spots). Elisa kisses him one last time and says, _thank you thank you thank you_.

They still keep in touch. After all, Elisa has been a big part of his life, and he refuses to cut her out just because they won’t work out. Elisa’s always happy to talk to him, and when she emails him a photo of her with a man with the same swallow mark on his wrist from somewhere in Macau, Patrick feels nothing but joy for the both of them.

-

When people think of the 2005 Warped Tour, they think of Pete Wentz and Mikey Way. Even until now, Patrick still doesn’t know what went down between them. He only knows that it’s something that Pete would never want to talk publicly about, and Mikey is rather discreet about it. But when Patrick thinks about the 2005 Warped Tour, he will always think of the day that Andy found his Soulmate.

Well, Andy didn’t found so much as ‘accidentally see Joe naked and see that he has the same Soulmate mark as him.’ It was boiling in the van, so naturally Joe took his shirt off. Andy was somehow still able to stand the heat, listening to whatever hardcore band blaring through his headphone and reading in a completely zen-mode. Andy was very, very calm.

Up until the moment Joe took off his shirt, and Andy, who Patrick had never heard shout until that day, who kept his mouth shut unless he has something meaningful to say, _shrieked_.

Patrick thinks it’s comical, the way Joe jumped nearly two feet in the air. Joe looked at Andy, terrified.

“That’s—“ Andy coughed. “Joe. I think we might be Soulmates.”

Joe blinked. “Okay,” he said. “Um, would you like to elaborate?”

Patrick remembers suddenly feeling like the biggest intruder in the whole world, so he awkwardly excused himself and went out for a stroll. Which proved to be a good idea, because he immediately found Pete, lounging as always in the My Chem bus, drinking beer. Mikey was beside him, as always, and he waved when he saw Patrick approaching.

Patrick remembers wondering if Mikey and Pete are Soulmates, if they’re trying to hide it because they aren’t ready, if Pete is afraid of homophobia. He remembers thinking that Pete is being ridiculous. My Chem is a band with Gerard Way as the frontman, Gerard Way who made out with his guitarist on stage, and if Pete thinks Joe, Andy, or he would mind, Pete is being even more ridiculous than he thought.

As it appears though, Mikey is not his Pete’s Soulmate. His Soulmate mark is a fox, running across his upper arm in a flurry of orange and gold. Pete’s is a feather on his back.

Sometimes Patrick thinks it’s ironic. The man who knows more people than the rest of the band combined is the one who still hasn’t found his Soulmate, and the quietest souls find each other. It’s one of Pete’s biggest fears, reflected a lot in the way he writes his lyrics, and Patrick takes comfort in that. Someone out there is worrying the same thing as him.

“You might not want to go back to the van,” Patrick remembers saying to Pete. “Andy and Joe are. Um.”

“Oh shit,” Pete half-yelled. “They’re hooking up?”

“No! It’s—it’s more than that,” Patrick shook his head. “They’re Soulmates.”

“Hurley and Trohman? Really?” Frank chirped. “Huh. Who would’ve thought?”

And isn’t that just the best way to describe Joe and Andy— _who would’ve thought?_

-

The phone call occurs midnight, and it’s from their manager. Patrick only processes the word ‘Pete,’ ‘BestBuy parking lot,’ and ‘overdose,’ before he is out of the bed. He doesn’t even care if his shoes are untied or if he’s wearing the dirty t-shirt from last night. As soon as he sees Pete, he sits by his side and holds his hands and refuses to let go. When Andy and Joe arrive, just a second later than Patrick, they hug him, and it’s the saddest fucking moment of Patrick’s life, including the time his parents decided to divorce.

Despite Pete’s reputation for being emotional, Patrick has never seen him cry. But as the three of them huddle themselves around Pete, Patrick sees Pete cry for the first time, and he vows to himself he will never, ever make Pete ever feel like this. When Andy and Joe have drifted to sleep, Patrick forces himself to stay awake. He won’t sleep if Pete won’t.

“Go to sleep, dumbass,” Pete tells him.

“Not before you,” Patrick replies.

Patrick ends up falling asleep anyway, but when he wakes up Pete is still there, curled up with a pen in his hand and a book within an arm’s reach. Patrick’s always allowed to read Pete’s journal, so without thinking he reads the first page that he sees. It’s a new song, obviously, because the lyrics are nothing that Patrick’s ever read before. It doesn’t sound like anything that Pete would write, which is ridiculous because it’s obviously Pete’s writing, but the way he writes it makes it look like he isn’t writing it as himself, which gets Patrick worried for a second, then he realizes the words sound familiar, and that’s when he understands.

Pete’s put himself in Patrick shoes and tries to write a song from his perspectives. About his own insecurities, anxiety, and on the corner of the page Patrick can read, _for that one friend who didn’t know they were awesome, and you wanna be like, hey, idiot._

Patrick soon turns those words into a song, and when they record the song, Patrick has to lock himself in the bathroom to avoid being seen crying for twenty minutes before he declares himself ready.

-

The thing about Joe and Andy is that they’ve always been Joe and Andy. As Soulmates, they’re still Joe and Andy, and they don’t act differently even when Pete makes endless jokes about butt-sex. The only difference is that they kiss and hold hands sometimes (and that some nights, Patrick has to sleep with earplugs), but most of the time, they’re Joe and Andy. They just always _are_. Which is why it’s not surprising that they end up forming a band together when the band goes on a hiatus. Patrick expects it, even. It will be unsettling to see Joe without Andy, or Andy without Joe.

When Joe visits him in one of his Soul Punk shows, they catch up over bad French fries and an even worse hamburger in a small dingy diner. Joe looks good, and he talks endlessly about guitars and music with Patrick. It’s almost like the hiatus doesn’t exist.

“How’s Andy?” Patrick asks, because he misses Andy.

“He’s good,” Joe says. “We finally moved to a house. It’s really bizarre, not walking out to a row of doors. We’re adopting our third dog.”

“That’s awesome,” Patrick says, ignoring the little pang of envy he feels in his chest. He can’t be bitter over his best friend’s happiness. Joe and Andy deserve this. “Has any tabloids figured out that the two you are Soulmates?”

“No!” Joe laughs. “I bet they think we’re just, you know, good pals helping each other out. I held Andy’s hand in one interview, and the interviewer went ‘awww’ and told us our ‘bromance’ is the best thing in the world. Andy laughed the whole time. They’re more focused on the big Simpson-Wentz divorce, I guess.”

Patrick nearly spits out his milkshake at that. “What?”

Joe looks at him, his forehead creased. “You didn’t know? I thought you would be the first one to know.”

-

In actuality, Patrick is the last one to know about the divorce. He knew from Joe, and from that he has to dig up a bunch of gossipy tabloid articles to find out more. Most of them are saying the same thing, that it’s the couple’s fault for pushing a marriage when it’s clear that both of them aren’t Soulmates.

He shows up at Pete’s unannounced, and it’s clear that Pete is reluctant to let him in, but Patrick’s having none of his shit. He wants to yell at Pete about how the hiatus doesn’t mean that they stop being friends, but there’s always time for that, so he sits Pete down on the sofa and makes sure he eats and drinks and doesn’t drown in his own tears. Patrick lets Pete lay his head on his lap and they watch re-runs of Star Wars and Pete falls asleep in the first thirty minutes. Patrick ends up falling asleep on the sofa and he wakes up with a crick on his neck, but Pete’s at least slept and that’s always a win.

He makes Pete breakfast and makes him talk about anything other than Ashlee or the break-up. Somewhere in the hours between midnight and morning, Pete’s laughing at one of Patrick’s joke and calling him a dork, and Patrick doesn’t know why a warm feeling settles his stomach and there’s a voice that tells him that this is how it’s supposed to be. 

Patrick mostly ignores it.

-

It’s not hard to, especially when the band reunites. They’re swamped with a lot of gigs and interviews with radios, magazines, and televisions, and the anxiety about their new album. So far, the only thing they’ve gathered is ‘it doesn’t sound like your last album!’ which puts a weight on their shoulders, and then Pete points out that everybody says that about Folie a Deux. Joe then points out it’s what everybody says, too, about Infinity on High. Then Andy points out that it’s what everybody says, too, about From Under the Cork Tree. Then Patrick feels a little better and they spend the road to the next venue in the living area, watching Star Wars.

When Pete’s head ends up in Patrick’s lap, though, it becomes hard to ignore it again. It doesn’t help that when he glances to his side, all he sees is Joe and Andy doing the same, except their hands are tangled together and sometimes they kiss.

Patrick tries hard to not let it bother him. And when interviewers ask about Soulmates (they finally realize that Joe and Andy have been dating for the most part of the decade, thank fuck), Patrick tries his best to trample down the constricted feeling in his chest and blames it on the asthma instead. Interviewers aren’t always nice, of course, more often than not they tend to focus more on Pete’s personal life than their music, or worse the only questions they ask are directed to Pete and Patrick only. Andy and Joe use this opportunity to play with each other’s hands when things like this happen in interviewers, and even though they insist that they’re okay, Patrick feels bad, especially when he hears Joe say once, “Next time we should just stay home.”

The Youngblood Chronicles is probably the best part of the album. It’s exhausting to shoot all of them, and having to keep them a secret on top of that, but at least the efforts Patrick’s made in his acting classes are paid off. He still makes funny faces in Young Volcanoes, but it’s not like he can look up reference from the internet, ‘how to look convincing when girls in tight black clothing are torturing you with non-consensual drugs.’

The weirdest part, other than the fact that Tommy Lee is the devil (and that Joe can get jealous), is shooting Miss Missing You. The colors are all fucked up, so Patrick agrees with the editing team’s decision to grayscale it, and besides it works. It’s poetic. Pete will be able to make up some metaphors about it, and his fans will analyze it, so it’s fine. But that’s not the weirdest part, because the weirdest part is having to practically grind on your best friend as you try to kill him.

Granted, his hook nearly injures Pete, but they turn out okay, and afterwards Pete offers Patrick a hand so they’re obviously on good terms. But Patrick can’t get the quite shake the feeling of being on top of Pete, having Pete’s hips buck up as he tries to get away—but fails.

He also can’t quite shake off the picture out of his head as he showers the dirt and grime from the set that night. And when his hand finds his cock as he starts to jerk off under the shower pray, and he still can’t quite shake off the feeling of having Pete _writhe_ under him…

Well, it’s his business.

-

It doesn’t take long for Patrick to get used to the tour life again, though. It really is like riding a bicycle, one foot always in front of the other. The bus, the venues, the fans. Being able to perform old songs and new songs and have them both yelled back at him is the best feeling in the world, and Patrick wonders sometimes why he ever thought going on a hiatus would be a good idea. Because standing in front of thousands of people, performing with his three best friends in the world, is the best blessing God’s ever put upon him.

And he doesn’t even go to church that much anymore.

So he sings, yelling out ‘we won’t go ‘cause we don’t know when to quit’ because it’s true. The only time he won’t ever want to do this is when he’s dying, and even then he’ll probably use his last breath to sing with the band who’s shaped his life for over than a decade.

But in some ways, the hiatus did a good thing to all of them. Pete had definitely gotten better at playing his bass. The line he wrote for Where did the Party Go is wonderful, and Patrick’s more than pleased to be able to fit it into a song. Recording Soul Punk did wonders to Patrick’s voice, and he’s super satisfied to hear how Phoenix turned out. But the most important thing, somewhere in the midst of hiatus, Andy managed to gather up the bravery to buy a ring for Joe.

It’s a simple gold band, something that Joe would love. Andy tells the two of them that he wants to propose on stage, because apparently, it’s one of the things that Joe has always dreamed of but never really speaks of, _so can you find the time, please?_

Of course, because Pete is not very good at keeping secrets, he ends up telling Brendon (and by extension, Dallon and Kenneth) and Tyler (and by extension, Josh) about it, so they insist that they want to help. Andy glares at Pete the whole time, but Pete manages to find something less than useless for them to do, so it’s settled. 

When the lights go out just before What a Catch, Patrick already knows what to do. The fans fall quiet, suspecting something, and when they lights come back on and Andy is kneeling in front of Joe, there’s an uproar.

Andy hasn’t even finished saying the ‘magic four words,’ as Brendon has lovingly put it, before Joe is saying _yesyesyes_ and throws himself on Andy’s arm and kisses him full on the mouth. Panic! and Twenty One Pilots come bouncing to the stage showering them with flowers and confetti, God knows where they got them. Pete and Patrick take turns giving both Andy and Joe a hug after the couple manages to detach themselves from one another.

It’s recorded on cell phones, being posted on vine and being streamed from all over the world.

Needless to say, for the next or so interviews, questions revolve around Joe and Andy. It’s a nice change, if Patrick’s being honest about it. Joe’s told everybody that he wasn’t born with muscles in his mouth, so he can’t smile, and yet Patrick always catches him smiling everywhere. Even when Pete and Patrick are having a fight about a particular lyric they can’t agree on.

When asked about a honeymoon, they both agree that going on another tour is good enough for the two of them.

-

They’re rich enough to be able to afford single rooms on hotel night, but Andy request to room with Joe so they get them a suit as a honeymoon gift, and Pete and Patrick get singles. It doesn’t stop Pete from crawling up into his room in the middle of the night, though. Nothing ever really stops Pete. Resigned, Patrick lets Pete crawl into his space and rests his forehead on Patrick’s shoulder. It’s too warm but too comfortable, and Patrick’s not really used to being the big spoon, but they make it work, anyway.

As they always do.

Joe and Andy are one thing that just happens, but this—having Pete nuzzle into his neck and breathes against his hair, it’s the best thing that just happens. So it’s only natural that Patrick puts his hands over Pete’s, bring them to his mouth and kiss his knuckles.

It’s _completely_ platonic.

-

There’s something different with the way Pete writes these days. They all sound more positive, more like a love song and less like a heartbreak song. Patrick should find it curious that, again, he finds references to his past experiences with Pete in nearly all of the songs. He reads the draft for Irresistible and notices that _mon cheri_ is a masculine word, but when he asks Pete, the older man just shrugs and tells Patrick to go along with it.

So Patrick does.

Their writing process is a lot like it used to be back in the days. Pete and Patrick fight a lot, Joe and Andy chill out and do their part impeccably and become the pacifist when things get rough, and Pete and Patrick fight a lot. Patrick still doesn’t understand Uma Thurman, but Pete shakes his shoulders and tells him to trust him on this, so he does (he’s totally smug when Uma Thurman becomes fan’s favorite).

They get an offer to write a song for Disney’s Big Hero Six, which is an honorable thing to do. They get the basic of the story from the director, and Pete immediately writes a song about it. It’s nice, it’s kid-friendly (even though people still joke about how the emos are infiltrating the world), and it’s happy. On the premiere, Pete and Patrick share a big popcorn, and Patrick feels suddenly like he’s seventeen and going on his first date.

Then he realizes he hasn’t gone on a date in years.

Pete drives him off that night, and as he stands awkwardly in in front of his door, Patrick doesn’t know what prompts him to pull Pete’s tie down and kiss the side of his mouth. Patrick’s probably acting like an idiot, stuttering and jittery, and he probably looks so red under the lamp post, but then Pete leans down and kisses him full on the mouth, and it’s the best thing in the world.

-

Except they’re still not Soulmates, and Pete still has issues and is still afraid of failure like his last marriage and Patrick is still afraid that Pete is not his other half. It prompts an ever bigger fight and disturbs the process of writing their new album.

Joe and Andy are worried. Patrick knows they are, from the way they keep glancing at Pete and Patrick whenever they’re in the studio together, being interviewed, even eating together at a restaurant. It comes up in interviews again, insensitive questions about “who will be next?” that none of them can answer, because Patrick’s been around the world and no one has the same fucking tattoo as him. Pete refuses to talk to anyone but— _guess who_ —Mikey, and even in 2005 Patrick didn’t feel jealousy, so now it should be weird that Patrick feels jealous, right?

Patrick takes his shower extra hot to calm himself later that day. When he steps out of the shower and catches the glimpse of his Soulmate tattoo on the mirror, he throws a bottle of shampoo at it.

-

In the end, Pete caves and lets Patrick in.

Tonight is certainly not one of their best shows. Patrick doesn’t sound as good as usual, and Pete messes up a lot of his cues. Their behavior sets Andy and Joe on edge—“for God’s sake, the two of you are 30-year-olds!”—and Pete ends up punching the wall.

It’s a hotel night, so Patrick isn’t surprised to hear a knock on his door. When he opens it, it’s Pete, his injured head bandaged and cleaned up, and Pete insists that he would be fine by tomorrow, _it won’t mess up my playing, Patrick._

 _But that’s not what I’m worried about_ , Patrick wants to yell. Instead, he kisses Pete.

This is one of the things that just happen.

Pete’s lips on his neck, bodies pressed to the bed, skin slapping against skin, mouth whispering sweet nothings, promises, secrets, careful of Pete's injured hand. Pete’s the experienced one in this section, of course, and Patrick finds himself wondering where Pete learns that—with whom—and he thinks of the men Pete’s been associated with, and then he thinks of nothing as Pete slides inside him, and god it feels so, so weird but satisfying and this feels like they should’ve done it forever ago. When their hands tangle and Pete’s all sleepy, Patrick thinks back on all the lyrics Pete’s written, and reassesses.

And if they’re not Soulmates, then who cares, because Pete and Patrick have always known how to make things work ever since the day Pete told Patrick to be the lead singer despite not having any experience in fronting a band before, and Fall Out Boy is still one of the biggest bands in the world now.

-

Patrick wakes up to a good view of Pete’s back in the morning.

He takes his glasses from the nightstand. Pete’s Soulmate mark sits on his right shoulder blade, a single feather that would fit _perfectly_ if it were on Patrick’s back. Patrick kisses it, relishing in the way Pete arches his back against him.

“I think I’m going to dye my hair blonde,” Pete sighs against Patrick’s neck. He smells like mint. He must have brushed his teeth. “I’m not angry anymore.”

Patrick smiles. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, if you got this far, thanks for reading! I've had this idea for a while now, and it took me a long time to figure out how I want to write this, and I wrote this in like three hours even though I have a Chem test tomorrow lol. Anyway, I have another idea for a Peterick fic, and it's a Supernatural AU with Patrick as a werewolf and Pete as a human. In this universe, supernatural beings are discriminated and used as slaves, and Pete means to "buy" Patrick as a way to save him, but he accidentally bounds them together...and yeah. Let me know if you guys are interested. I can like, give a more detailed summary and/or a snippet if you guys want.
> 
> Also, hit me up on Tumblr! mighty-poffertjes


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